Pandan leaf, blue-pea flowers, wormwood; all are ingredients that don’t necessarily scream Friday’s cocktail. Yet, as the craft has evolved, bartenders are continually digging into the unique and unexpected. Here’s a look at three creative cocktails and bar programs to add to your summer imbibing list.
Ingredient: Malaysian pea flowers
Cocktail: One Way Ticket to Bangkok
Commonly known as butterfly pea flowers, Malaysian pea flowers got their Instagram fame for their unique color-changing properties. When mixed with an acid, such as lemon juice, the blue flowers interact to change the color of a cocktail.
The cocktails at The Ladies’ Room at Fat Rice are an easy dive into the unexpected ingredient, which isn’t surprising given chef Abraham Conlon’s signature approach to Macanese cuisine. Beverage director Annie Beebe-Tron follows suit with the One Way Ticket to Bangkok, a cocktail featuring black raspberry-infused Letherbee gin, Mizu Lemongrass Shochu, and house Thai herb bitters infused with Malaysian blue-pea flowers.
Instead of using the flower for its “ta-da!” color-changing properties, Beebe-Tron creates her own color experiment by first extracting the flowers’ blue color in bitters. When mixed with the raspberry-infused gin, the cocktail takes on a shade of either dark red or light pink, depending on the batch of raspberries used. When the gin is darker, Beebe-Tron says the gin and the bitters play off each other, resulting in a darker, reddish shade. When the gin is lighter, the combo yields a pink or peachy color.
Ingredient: pandan leaf
Cocktail: Jean Claude Pandan
Commonly found in pastries, the tropical pandan leaf is used widely in South Asian cooking and is known for its fragrant and sweet aroma. At Proxi, Josh Relkin, head bartender, and pastry chef Sarah Mispagel are updating the chef-mixologist collab with the introduction of pandan leaf in Relkin’s riff on the pina colada, dubbed Jean Claude Pandan.
Relkin wanted to cut some of the richness and sweetness of the traditional summer drink, so Mispagel directed him to pandan and its natural friend, coconut milk. Relkin steeps the large leaf in coconut milk for several hours, the finished infusion taking on notes of toasted jasmine rice, seaweed and vegetable umami. Relkin found the oceanic salinity of the infused coconut milk to be a great compliment to the nuttiness of sherry, which acts as the drink’s base. Vodka is added to raise the proof without changing the flavor, and fresh pineapple juice brings in that signature pina colada nostalgia. Relkin also wanted the smell of angostura bitters but didn’t want to simply build it into the cocktail. Instead, inspired by end-of-night leftovers of slices of lime, he soaks limes in bitters, laying them out to dry overnight. The dehydrated limes take on the color and flavor of the angostura, which slowly bleed into the drink while still maintaining the lime flavor, making for a garnish that is cross-functional and sustainable.
Ingredient: wormwood
Cocktail: Spirit-Free Negroni
A nonalcoholic Negroni might sound like an oxymoron, but Nico Osteria’s bar manager, Olivia Duncan, in collaboration with previous bar manager Scott Stroemer, have managed to deliver on the impossible with a spirit-free Negroni.
The cocktail came to fruition when Stappj red bitter soda, a popular Italian nonalcoholic aperitif that tastes like Campari, landed on their bar. The classic Negroni came to mind, and the pair set out to create a nonalcoholic version, seeking a replacement for traditional gin and vermouth. The result? A house-made syrup made with angelica, wormwood, juniper, star anise, golden raisins and citrus peel.
Notoriously known for its role as an ingredient in absinthe, wormwood or Artemisia absinthium is a bitter plant that is also a botanical in certain kinds of vermouth. Once absinthe became legal again, wormwood started to pop up as an ingredient in bitters. Its “Green Fairy” association still elicits skepticism from people holding on to its overblown hallucinogenic reputation, which is a misconception, says Roderick Marcus at Rare Tea Cellars, who supplies Duncan with the wormwood. Marcus’ blend includes wormwood varieties from South Africa, Germany and Austria, and is the result of years of experimenting to find a balance of both bitter and floral compounds. Marcus notes that when sweetened, wormwood can take on a citrus complexity.
To make the drink, which is served during afternoon aperitivo happy hour, Duncan combines the syrup with the Stappj soda and grapefruit juice, to combat the sweetness. If you’re not a Negroni purist, you may not know the difference. The finished drink is much brighter than a classic Negroni, but Duncan says it has become a favorite among regulars, “a Negroni for those who don’t want the alcohol.” And that’s not the wormwood talking.
Brandy Gonsoulin is a freelance writer.
